Net flows of migrants to New Zealand

Year ended June 1979–2015, thousands

About this data

Notes

Permanent and long-term arrivals are people arriving for a stay of 12 months or more, including New Zealanders returning after an absence of 12 months or more.
Permanent and long-term departures are New Zealanders departing for 12 months or more, and migrants leaving after a stay of 12 months or more in New Zealand.
Actual series are counts derived from a sample of records from April 1975 to August 1997, and hence may contain sample error for these periods.
For arrival series, the country of residence is the country where a person last lived for 12 months or more (country of last permanent residence).
For permanent and long-term departure series, the country of residence is the country where a person intends to live for the next 12 months or more (country of next permanent residence).

About this dataset

This dataset contains selected series on immigration, emigration, population and trade drawn from published Statistics NZ and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment data.

Purpose of collection

This data was collected as part of the research for a book, Going Places: Migration, Economics and the Future of New Zealand. The book looks at how New Zealand can attract skilled, creative and entrepreneurial people born elsewhere, and whether its large overseas population can be a greater national asset. The book presents data on immigration and emigration, the impacts of those flows on New Zealand’s population, and how our people exchanges with other countries compare with our goods trade. The graphs in the book are all replicated here on Figure.NZ so as to share the data more widely.